Officials: layoffs possible in Mine Hill

MINE HILL TWP. - Although the Township Council did not recommend
layoffs in the $300,339 in cuts it made from the defeated school
budget on Thursday, May 15, district officials say layoffs are
still a possibility.

"We told council before the meeting started that if more than
$180,000 was cut, the Board of Education would have to consider
laying off teaching staff," said Board President Peggy Healey on
May 19.

Eight untenured teachers received reduction in force (RIF)
notices on May 15, the deadline for their issuance. Superintendent
Dan Blachford said the notices had to be issued during the workday
of the May 15 deadline, which occurred earlier in the day before
council was meeting to enable the board to make a firm decision at
a later date. Teachers who received a RIF notice remain uncertain
about their future employment in the district, and the board has
the ability to use lay-offs to offset cuts made by council in other
budget categories if they believe the cuts would be more
detrimental to providing a good education.

"We cannot reduce our non-teaching staff any further," said
Healey. "We only have two custodians, one full-time and one
part-time, and two secretaries. Two years ago we had reduced our
clerical staff from three to two. Teacher aides have already been
cut. Teaching staff is the only category left to be
considered."

Blachford said on May 19 that the defeated budget and council's
resolution recommending reductions have been forwarded to county
school superintendent Renee Rovtar for review.

The board has 10 days following last Thursday's meeting to
decide whether or not they want to file an appeal for restoration
of all or some of the recommended cuts to the state department of
education (DOE).

The commissioner of the DOE has the authority to override the
voters and council recommendations if they determine the cuts would
be detrimental to providing a quality education to Mine Hill
students.

Because the Board of Education has not scheduled its next
meeting until two days after the filing deadline of May 25,
Blachford anticipates that an application may be filed and
thereafter withdrawn or confirmed by resolution of the board on
Tuesday, May 27.

Blachford said Rovtar does not have the authority to approve or
deny the reductions recommended by council, but her recommendations
may have an effect on any appeal considered by the state.

Before council cut the defeated budget, the tax rate would have
increased by 37 cents, representing an increase of $515 on the
average home, for a total tax of $3,700 on a home assessed at
$100,000. That increase represents only the school portion of the
tax bill.

The reductions recommended by council will reduce the proposed
rate by 13.41 cents, making the increase approximately 23.59 cents,
or $235.90 for each $100 of assessed value and $2,359 on a home
assessed at $100,000.

The $6.8 million dollar budget proposed by the Mine Hill Board
of Education for the 2003-2004 school year was soundly defeated by
voters on April 15. A total of 608 voted against the budget, while
only 87 voted in favor.

The Township Council guaranteed school officials that should an
emergency arise for something that was not budgeted, such as
another severe winter that increases energy costs or more sinkhole
problems, the township would work cooperatively with the school to
meet such needs by using some of their own surplus.

"We want to work cooperatively with the board," said Mayor
Richard Leary.

"We are concerned with the education of our children. During the
past winter, which had more snowfall than had been experienced in
previous years, the township assisted the school with snow removal
with no extra charge."

Tuition costs - the single largest increase in the district's
budget - were not reduced by council, and they recognized that this
was one of the reasons that a tax increase remains inevitable.

The council resolution adopted at the end of the meeting
stated:

"In light of the unprecedented tuition increases due to growing
enrollments and rate increases, the council acknowledges that a
significant, although substantially reduced, tax increase is
unavoidable."

The more than $300,000 was cut from an assortment of line items,
with the most significant being $60,000 from legal services, which
had been budgeted in anticipation of continuing litigation with the
Dover school system in the district's ongoing efforts to bring
their seventh and eighth-grade students back to Mine Hill.

Another $43,000 represented a savings that can be realized
because a pre-schoolteacher who is being paid at the high end of
the pay scale will be retiring and can be replaced with a new
teacher at the lower end of the scale.

School officials agreed with the council on $159,000 of the
proposed cuts, which included items such as a guidance counselor,
the legal services, a transportation subsidy paid to parents of
students in K-6 grades who choose to send a child out of district
even though the child does not qualify for subsidies due to special
education needs, the hiring of a new business administrator and
bookkeeper and their related health benefits, and teacher
aides.

The school district uses the services of Angelo Velardi of the
Morris County Educational Services Commission (MCEDSC), to handle
the tasks of a business administrator and bookkeeping. MCEDSC is a
pooled service that has allowed districts to pool certain services,
particularly transportation, enabling them to control costs. MCEDSC
will continue to provide the administration services with Velardi
being replaced by Vito Dellovi. Both Velardi and Dellovi attended
the council meeting to assist Blachford and board members Healey
and Paul Breda in negotiating with council.

Healey said that among the remaining items that the board did
not agree with were things such as workbooks and other
supplies.

Several facility maintenance items were among the line items cut
by council. At the meeting, township administrator Barry Lewis said
that the budget documents submitted to council and subsequent
questions asked of the board did not reveal specific quotes that
would provide accurate figures to ascertain the cost of
repairs.

Discussion centered on the summer school program. Lewis said
that he had been told the program targets five of the most at-risk
children in each grade and that the program, instituted last year,
had been very successful.

"If only two out of 30 children are saved with this program it
is worth about $13,000 in educational costs," said Lewis.

The council unanimously adopted a resolution that identified
$300,339 to be cut from the school budget, but taxpayers will still
have to wait until the board decides, at its May 27 meeting,
whether to accept all or some of the line items to be cut or to
apply to the DOE for restoration for all or part of their original
budget that had been defeated by voters.

The board will address these questions at a public meeting that
will convene at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 27, in the library of
Canfield Avenue School.

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